Forraging . .

Berries plenty . . .

We went to a presentation in Ottawa about Urban food foraging, but have never actually used those skills taught there until this trip. Although I must admit , a lot of foraging is being done in the delightful “Historical” pubs along the canal. While we of course are visiting because of the amazing historical significance of these structures, we have also managed to forage some meals from them. We have also managed to use some of the wildlife along the route to feed our faces.

Lots of Blackberries

Early on Bill discovered that blackberries were growing in amazing numbers along the canal. He disappeared at one stop for an hour, returning with a mug of berries which went on our cereal the next morning. He became a bit of a problem from then on, and we had to constantly remind him to “get on up and open the lock and leave those berries alone”. Finally we found ourselves in a lock with no boats waiting and a huge patch of berries glowing in the sunlight beside the lock, so we left the boat in the lock and picked a couple more mugs of delicious ripe blackberries.

Today Regis made excellent use of these berries and added some store-bought mixed berries as well as a ripe pear and mixed it up in a berry crumble.

Haggis on the hoof . . .

As she was baking this delicious desert we happened to be working our way up through a series of locks with three other boats. The smell of the crumble cooking was wafting out of the back hatch, and Bill commented that as much as he was enjoying the faint smell of the diesel engine pushing our craft along, he was finding the baking crumble a delicious alternative. As well the folk form the other boat working the locks with us were suggesting that they may forgo their planned trip to the pub to come get Regis’ desert. Although we assumed this was a friendly joke, they did ask “Where did you Canadians decide to moor?”.